Eighteen years ago, Rabbi Jennie Bunde and her husband moved to Galesburg, Ill., and found a community that sustained her family and, unexpectedly, changed the course of her professional life.
After a decade living in the community, Bunde faced several lifechanging events: the death of parents, adoption of two foster children, and a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. Galesburg's Temple Shalom became her primary source of support. In fact, Bunde's gratitude for her synagogue community inspired her to apply to rabbinical school.
Bunde went on to assume a leadership position at the Galesburg synagogue and found partnership from an unexpected source: Colby College in Waterville, Maine. As a Makom fellow through the Center for Small Town Jewish Life at Colby College, she was able to connect with leaders from small town communities across the nation and build valuable mentor/mentee relationships to promote success.
"Maine has this incredible success story that has inspired me," Bunde said.
Even before becoming a rabbi in Galesburg, Rabbi Bunde knew that serving small town Jewish communities was challenging--but it's now more important than ever. We fail as a people when we do not commit to providing: to every Jewish child, access to a Jewish education; to every Jew, guidance toward joy and meaning in their tradition; to very sick individuals in our community, comfort; and to everyone who dies, a rabbi to bury them if they desire.
Our faith should compel us to care for everyone. Beyond the spiritual, there is a practical concern. When Jews living in small, rural, and remote communities don't feel connected to the larger community, they are often left with a worrying sense of alienation. According to research done by Eitan Hersh of Tufts University, there is a clear correlation between those who have organized against Jewish institutions and those who have been traditionally disconnected and alienated from them. We must do better.
At the Center for Small Town Jewish Life at Colby College, we connect and nurture Jewish communities located outside of major metropolitan areas. We strengthen, equip, and connect leaders in small town communities through academic instruction, pastoral care, and a commitment to civic engagement. We cultivate a network of small-town Jewish communities to build a system of mutual support for small-town, sustainable leadership. We teach inspirational Torah, the fundamentals of communal leadership, and the nuts and bolts of congregational management to give professionals and laity the skills to succeed in a small-town context. Finally, we support and instruct these leaders as they put all of these skills into practice to transform their Jewish institutions and broader communities.
Rabbi Bunde exemplifies our belief that small town Jewish communities should thrive. Like others in similar roles, she wears many hats. She engages Jewish students at Knox College on Shabbat,
havdalah
, Passover, and other holidays, often driving to pick up students so they can have these experiences. She supports Jewish faculty at Knox and serves as a chaplain at the local hospital.
If these commitments ever feel overwhelming, she has a cohort of colleagues through the Makom fellowship that she leans on for support. They motivate each other in part because they know that vibrant Jewish communities create generations of committed Jews and allies, and they enrich and diversify the American landscape in myriad ways.
From Waterville to Galesburg, the power and purpose of our tradition is giving new life to America's small towns. We hope that Jewish communities large and small join our journey, ensuring that every soul thirsting for Torah is served with skill, care, and commitment.
Rabbi Rachel Isaacs is founder and Executive Director of the Center for Small Town Jewish Life at Colby College in Maine. The Center cultivates locally rooted, vibrant, connected, socially equitable learning communities steeped in the Jewish tradition and intertwined with the broader Jewish world. Isaacs will speak at Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago on March 21.
Learn more here
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